WARNING TO READERS: I am a highly experienced striped bass angler with 60+ years of experience catching them from boats and shore. Which makes me a tough reviewer and grader of charter boat Captains!
I booked a four hour, afternoon striper charter with Andrew and SHOWTIME โat the last minuteโ, specifically four days before casting off. So most CC Bay-side, experienced Charter skippers were already booked long before, it being the extended Fourth of July weekend!!
And I am a direct person who never skirts the truth or dissembles.
Six of us went out with Andrew and we caught four slot stripers, more than enough to feed our family. Andrew is an engaging young man who is very knowledgeable given his age and experience. Some of the pictures on his website are of pre-size-limitations fish (e.g., #โs16, 17 and 35 of 36). And some of the text appears to constitute an attempt to โfogโ the reader as to Andrewโs age (e.g., โโฆextremely successful past seasons led Andrew to take night courses while finishing up schoolโฆโ to get his Captains license, and โWith many successful seasons under his beltโฆโ). You wonโt find a clear photo of Andrew on the website either.
2024 is Andrewโs FIRST as a charter Captain, and he just graduated from HIGH school. But everyone starts out at some point, and every star performer starts somewhere! Would I go out with Andrew again? Sure! You wonโt get skunked! AND youโll have FUN aboard SHOWTIME.
Andrew has extensive knowledge for his age, and a bright future ahead of him, so long as he never forgets that WE ALL HAVE A LOT TO LEARN, and to do so EVERY DAY!
Andrew was stuck on wire line jigging, and it is indeed ONE OF the most productive ways to catch linesiders. But itโs not the ONLY one!!
1)Andrew needs to learn to listen more attentively to his clients. I asked to cast from the bow while two were jigging from the stern. Andrew was concerned (apparently that I might hook someone, or perhaps that Iโd cross one of the wire lines). So it was not until an hour later and I asked again that he said OK.
2) Andrew should NEVER give a client a fishing rig to use that is not in first-rate, operating condition! When he finally relented, he handed me a spinning rig with a reel in DIRE NEED (and wow do I ever mean DIRE!) OF GREASE AND OIL!! Iโm talking grinding noises and resistance when cranked! When I pointed this out Andrew tried the rig himself, cranking the reel hard and quickly, apparently trying somehow to free it up. Unsuccessfully!! THEN ANDREW GAVE IT BACK TO ME saying I should try cranking the reel faster!! WHOA! I promise you, this was a spinning reel that belonged on the workbench in someoneโs repair shop, not in a charter clientโs hand!!!
3) Andrew could be more open to clientsโ suggestions, even if heโs expressed the view that he has a better idea. Andrew knew how experienced I was, he knew I had had my own striper boat in Sesuit Harbor for six years, but he ignored my initial agreement followed by multiple requests to go to Barnstable and then troll back to Sesuit (after 1-1/2 productive but boring hours of transom-gating a commercial clamming boat out at Billingsgate) until I gently put my foot down (โDo you have any Rapala X-Raps aboardโ followed by โI already said I wanted to go to Barnstable!โ).
Those are some well-intentioned suggestions for a new charter Captain with a great future agead of him. If I were a betting man, Iโd say that Andrew is a rising star for sure!!
WARNING TO READERS: I am a highly experienced striped bass angler with 60+ years of experience catching them from boats and...